Annual Search Engine Issue

1. Topic Specific Engines
2. Meta Search Engines
3. Smarter Search Engines
4. Search Engine Updates
5. Browser Enhancements
6. Foreign Search Engines

Executive Technology Briefing (ETB)
Editor/Publisher: Jordan Ayan
Contributing Editor: Chuck Frey

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ANNUAL SEARCH ENGINE ISSUE

Web search engines represent a strategic tool for your company, because they serve as the primary gateway to a rapidly expanding network of news, information and knowledge you need to compete effectively in today's Networked Economy. A recent survey by Opinion Research Corporation revealed that 81 percent of the population using the web start with a search engine. The ability to find key information quickly, so your company can evaluate it and act on it promptly, continues to grow in importance. As I've noted in past issues of ETB, speed can be a potent form of competitive advantage. Lack of search engine knowledge is one of the biggest wastes of company time.

Last April, ETB's first annual search engine issue gave you an overview of the major Web search engines (if you missed the issue, it is still available for your review at http://www.createit.com/etbstory.cfm?op=issue&etb=12 . That issue was the most popular in ETB's history, based on the responses we received from our subscribers! Because this topic is so popular, this issue of ETB is a bit longer than usual, and we've devoted the entire issue to search engines and how to leverage them in your business.

As the number of pages on the Web continues to grow at nearly an exponential rate, knowing how to use these major Web search engines may no longer be enough. In many cases, a specialized search engine or directory may help you find what you need faster and easier. That's why this 2nd annual search engine issue is focused on the best specialty search engines, directories and resources. Knowing what these tools are and how to use them is the next step in your evolution as someone who knows where and how to find key information.

TOPIC-SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES

As the Web continues to grow in size and complexity, a variety of topic-specific search engines and directories have emerged that can help you locate specific types of information and knowledge. These tools can be powerful allies in your online research efforts, because they limit their scope - and therefore the number and content of the Web pages they index - to a specific topic, category or industry. Odds are there is a site that serves whatever industry you are interested in, and if you don't know where it is, taking some time to locate it can pay huge dividends. Examples include:

Government - SearchGov (http://www.searchgov.com) provides a searchable index of over 5 million U.S. government Web pages. FirstGov (http://www.firstgov.com) is the U.S. government's official search site. Google Uncle Sam (http://www.google.com/unclesam) and Northern Light's USGovSearch (http://usgovsearch.northernlight.com) also offer similar services.

Education - SearchEdu (http://www.searchedu.com) contains an index of over 20 million university and education Web pages.

Marketing - Internet Marketing Index (http://www.internetmarketingindex.com) is a Yahoo-like directory of links to over 250 leading Web sites regarding online marketing, arranged into over 60 major categories. TechRover (http://www.techrover.com) takes a slightly different approach, cataloging links to thousands of articles about Web marketing.

Legal - FindForms (http://www.findforms.com) provides a searchable database of thousands of free legal forms. This site also provides premium (paid) access to over 20,000 state-specific legal forms for many types of business and personal law.

Web databases - A growing number of business Web sites contain searchable directories and other applications driven by databases. Typically, these dynamic Web pages are not usually indexed by the major search engines To meet this need, a number of search sites have emerged to help you find these important sources of market and industry information. Several years ago, search expert IntelliSeek uncovered this need, and developed the InvisibleWeb directory (http://www.invisibleweb.com) as a guide to over 10,000 databases, archives, and search engines. Searching this site is refreshing; instead of displaying countless "hits" from different Web pages within the same site, InvisibleWeb displays only a single link to each site's search page. In this sense, it provides pointers to other databases and directories, so you can perform such searches as locating a business, viewing reference guides, and checking on industry news.

News - Several of the major Web search engines enable you to set up personalized news profiles to track specific companies or topics. Examples include MyYahoo! (http://my.yahoo.com) and Excite's NewsTracker (http://nt.excite.com). Another well-respected source of general and business news is Moreover (http://w.moreover.com/news/index.html). You can view the day's headlines and news stories on the Moreover Web site, or register to have daily news headlines e-mailed to you.

Images and photographs - Both Lycos (http://multimedia.lycos.com) and AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com) offer powerful image searches, which enable you to find photographs, artwork or Web graphics by keyword searches. Lycos displays thumbnail (small) versions of each image in the browser, making it very useful for locating hard-to-find Web art and photographs.

Business resources - Business.com (http://www.business.com) is a Yahoo-like directory of business and corporate information. It features nearly 30 major categories of industry-specific information, news and resources, plus a database of detailed information on close to 70,000 companies. Like Yahoo!, Business.com allows you to create a "myBusiness" site -- customized around the companies, industries and news you want to track.

Competitive intelligence - One of the most powerful tools for tracking industry news or conducting competitive intelligence is Mind-It from NetMind (http://mindit.netmind.com). Using this free service is simple: input a series of Web page URLs and tell Mind-It what types of changes you want to track (text, keywords or images), and how often you want Mind-It to check for changes (anywhere from daily to once every two weeks). Whenever one of your target pages changes, Mind-It automatically generates an e-mail message advising you of that change, along with the URL of the page you asked it to "mind." This service is a valuable strategic tool because it automates the process of competitive or market intelligence. You can easily track dozens of sites and pages without having to visit each of them manually.

TrackEngine (http://www.trackengine.com) is a search enhancement tool that is ideally suited to competitive intelligence. It can be used to keep track of new links to your company's Web site, or any other Web page. To set this up, simply go to AltaVista and type in "link:www.yourcompanyname.com." (insert the URL you want to track) When the search result appears, copy the resulting URL into your TrackEngine profile. Once this URL is added to your personal profile, you will be alerted by e-mail whenever those search results have changed from the previous day; any changes will be highlighted in blue.

General reference - If you're looking for general reference sources on the Web, Xrefer (http://www.xrefer.com) and RefDesk (http://refdesk.com) are your best bets. Xrefer specializes in encyclopedic and university reference materials, while RefDesk's wide-ranging links directory covers almost any kind of reference or background information you can imagine.

My advice is to carefully consider what you're trying to find on the Web, before you automatically go to your favorite search engine. If you're trying to find specialized information, one of these specialized sites may help you to zero in on the resources you need faster and more efficiently.

METASEARCH ENGINES

Instead of conducting your searches by querying each engine separately, metasearch sites can save you time by automatically submitting your query to multiple search engines at the same time. I recommend that you use metasearch tools for any searches that involve extremely specialized information. This type of search engine can literally help you to find "the needle in the haystack" and eliminate the need to visit each search engine to run your query there.

Well-established metasearch sites include WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com), Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) and Mamma.com (http://www.mamma.com). About.com (http://www.about.com) is another great place to start a metasearch. It utilizes a volunteer staff of over 700 subject "guides" (experts on specific topics) to gather together the best links, articles and resources on over 50,000 topics. Therefore, its database of over 1 million recommended Web sites tend to be more valuable than "raw" search engine results.

Desktop metasearch tools

In addition to metasearch sites, we also recommend two desktop software tools that allow you to conduct similar types of searches - but add the benefit of storing your search results locally and then tracking these search profiles for changes (to alert you to new Web sites in a particular product category or market segment for example): Copernic 2001 (http://www.copernic.com) is a must-have search tool for anyone who is serious about doing research on the Web. For a review of this excellent metasearch tool, please click on the following link to the ETB archives: http://www.create-it.com/etbstory.cfm?etb=18.

Bullseye 2 (http://www.intelliseek.com/prod/bullseye/bullseye.htm) conducts meta-searches on over 800 of the best search engines and databases on the Web, but its interface limits you to predefined topics and categories. A review of this metasearch tool can also be found in the ETB archives, at this Web address: http://www.create-it.com/etbstory.cfm?etb=46.

NEW ENGINES OFFER "SMARTER" SEARCHES

During the last year or two, a number of new metasearch engines have emerged that aim to provide "smarter" searches by analyzing the meaning and context of the search terms or search results. SurfWax (http://www.surfwax.com), an engine that indexes 14 of the major Web search engines, utilizes a unique two-step query process to help you refine your searches. For example, if you conduct a search on the term "software," SurfWax will present you with a list of search results, plus a "focus" button. Clicking on it displays a list of related words and phrases, grouped together under the categories of broader or narrower meanings. If you click on a "FocusWord," SurfWax will add it to your search term. For example, clicking on the FocusWord "CAD" would add this word to your search term (which would then become "software CAD"). You can also click on an icon next to each FocusWord to refocus your entire search around it.

SurfWax has also introduced several simple innovations to the concept of search results. Icons next to each search results indicate which search engine identified the site. Next to that is a green button, which gives you quick access to a SiteSnap -- an executive summary of the Web page's content that displays alongside the search results. This feature can save you valuable time by helping you to quickly determine which Web pages you want to visit, and which are irrelevant.

Like SurfWax, Oingo (http://www.oingo.com) indexes information based on meaning rather than text - in other words, it tries to extract the underlying meaning of words and their relationships to each other. Oingo's key strength is its ability to help you zero in on what you're looking for. For most search terms, it provides drop-down boxes to help you clarify what you're looking for. It searches a combination of its own listings, plus those of AltaVista.

Metor (http://www.metor.com) combines the best features of several types of engines into one powerful package: Not only does it allow you to search up to 10 of the major search engines simultaneously (and you get to select which ones), it also searches hundreds of specialized databases, archives and catalogs that conventional search engines tend to miss. Also, like Northern Light, Metor organizes search results into categories, to help you sift through your search results faster. Metor also offers 24 topic-specific metasearch channels; while these are limited in scope, they may be just the place to start a topic specific search.

UPDATES ON MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES

Google - http://www.google.com Since last year's review, Google has added a number of new features, including:

* Conducting searches in over 30 foreign languages
* Phone number and street address look-ups
* Find PDF files
* Stock quotes
* Cached links - in other words, a snapshot of an old page that may no longer be on the Web.

AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com As search engines have morphed from pure directories or search tools into "information portals," they have faced a backlash from some users, who think they should focus on one thing only: conducting Web searches. To respond to that need, AltaVista has created a number of specific types of "search centers," which allow you to conduct limited searches within certain topics, such as news, careers, technology and world facts. For power users, AltaVista has added "Raging Search," which is a stripped-down, fast version of the AltaVista interface that only does one thing and does it very well: searching the Web.

Northern Light - http://www.northernlight.com Northern Light recently launched a "search alert" service, to help you track new listings for key subjects you care about. If you sign up for this service, you will automatically receive e-mail alerts whenever new Web pages are added to the Northern Light search database that match your profile. Another new service, RivalEye (http://www.northernlight.com/docs/rivaleye.html), is an ideal tool for conducting competitive intelligence. RivalEye enables you to create a customized "micro site" where you can gather news, articles and other valuable content on your competitors or your industry into one convenient executive summary view.

BROWSER ENHANCEMENTS

Several of the major search engines have come up with a clever way to help you conduct searches, no matter where you are on the Web. Google Toolbar (http://www.google.com/options/toolbar.html), Alexa (http://www.alexa.com) and FlySwat (http://www.flyswat.com) offer small, downloadable software programs that integrate themselves into your browser's toolbar and offer search functions directly from there. For example, Google's tool allows you to search the engine's entire database from Internet Explorer's toolbar, plus a number of other specialized search functions: You can search only the pages of the site you're visiting, search for words on the page you're viewing, highlight your search terms as they appear on the pages you visit, and see Google's ranking of the current page. Alexa provides similar services, but adds consumer features like online shopping and price comparisons.

FOREIGN SEARCH ENGINES

Most of the major U.S. search engines offer country-specific versions, in each country's native language. For example, Yahoo, operates over 20 country-specific Web site indexes in Europe, Asia and the Americas. How can you use these foreign search engines? If you're searching for information on a British company, for example, you should probably start your search at Yahoo! UK (http://www.yahoo.co.uk). When traveling internationally, these can be fantastic tools to get local information.

CONCLUSION

Overwhelmed? There are a lot of resources to choose from, but don't let the number of search tools get to you. The best way to determine what will work for you is to try them, and select the ones that work best for you. Then establish a strategy that you use consistently when searching for information. There's no question in my mind that the need for ad hoc, on-demand access to specific information and knowledge continues to increase like never before. Fortunately, search engines have started to introduce many innovative new tools and capabilities to help you find, leverage and profit from information on the Web.

Happy hunting!

Jordan Ayan
President
Create-It! Inc.